MISERY: This Brutal Co-op Survival Game is Dangerously Addictive

The co-op survival genre is crowded, but every so often a game emerges that blends familiar mechanics into something uniquely compelling. MISERY, from developer Platypus Entertainment, is one of those games. It shamelessly wears its influences on its sleeve, billing itself as a co-op rogue-lite for fans of Lethal Company and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. And honestly, that’s the most accurate description you could ask for.

Set in a nuclear-blasted “Exclusion Zone,” you and up to four friends play as PMCs who have 60 seconds to grab what you can before a nuke hits, forcing you into a bunker. From there, it’s a daily struggle for survival. The problem? As one player aptly put it, “I thought Misery was just the title, turns out it’s also a warning label.”

This game is a buggy, janky, sometimes-broken mess that is also one of the most addictive and atmospheric co-op experiences of the year.

“Dive into the unforgiving chaos of post-apocalyptic survival with friends. Scavenge, build, fight, and adapt in a radioactive wasteland filled with danger. Will you conquer or be consumed?”

It’s a question you’ll ask yourself every single raid, and the answer is rarely certain.

The Unforgiving Loop

The core gameplay loop is simple, brutal, and incredibly effective. You start in your bunker, prep your gear, and venture out into the procedurally generated wasteland. You have a set amount of time to explore, scavenge supplies, fight off bandits, and tangle with “anomalies” before an “emission” forces you to sprint back to the bunker.

After the emission passes, the map regenerates, and you go out to do it all again. It’s the Lethal Company loop, but with a thick, Eastern European, Stalker-flavored aesthetic. The world is dark, brutal, and everything wants you dead. Weird black orbs might teleport you, or they might just vaporize you. Mutated boars will ruin your day. And then there’s the Plane™. Don’t look up.

This loop is the game’s greatest strength. It’s frustrating, but when you and your friends finally make it back to base, loaded with loot and half-dead, it feels like a genuine victory.

A Comfy, Gnome-Powered Home

The “comfy” part of this brutal loop is your bunker. This is your safe haven where enemies (currently) can’t reach you. The base building is a surprisingly deep and rewarding part of the game. You’ll expand your shelter room by room, installing generators (which can be solar, gas, or… gnome-powered), building crafting stations, and growing food.

You can decorate your new home with whatever junk you drag back from your raids—a worn-out sofa, a table, a cozy rug. After a harrowing raid, you can even chill at the bar in the institute’s basement, trade with merchants, and decompress. This push-and-pull between the cozy, safe bunker and the horrific, deadly Zone is what makes the game so addictive.

The Early Access Warning (That Isn’t There)

Here’s the biggest problem with MISERY: it is not labeled as an “Early Access” title, but it absolutely is one. The game is riddled with bugs and performance issues. We’re talking significant memory leaks that require a full restart to fix, servers that won’t launch a second time, and friends loading into invisible maps with invisible enemies.

The core gameplay itself feels undercooked. The FPS combat is janky and lacks impact. The game is advertised as a co-op experience, but it lacks basic co-op features, such as a revive system. The survival elements are also bafflingly balanced; food and water are so abundant that it’s less “scavenging to survive” and more “going on a casual shopping trip.”

It’s a sandbox, but the box isn’t very deep yet. After just a few hours, you’ll start seeing the same procedurally generated points of interest over and over, making the world feel small.

A Diamond in the (Radioactive) Rough

Despite these significant flaws, the game continues to receive recommendations, and for one simple reason: the developer is active and responsive. Early players (myself included) complained that the blowout timer was absurdly short, punishing exploration. The developer fixed it. The game is constantly being tweaked, and every issue seems to be on the devs’ radar.

This is a “$10 Stalker” that low-end PCs can run, and it’s built on a foundation of pure potential. The atmosphere is top-notch, the enemy and anomaly designs are creative, and playing with friends is chaotic fun. You’ll spend half the time surviving and the other half yelling at each other for doing something stupid. It’s a game you can feel the love in, even if that love is buried under a pile of jank.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Incredibly Addictive Gameplay Loop: The Stalker meets Lethal Company formula just works.	❌ Not Labeled Early Access (But Is): Feels deeply unfinished and misleadingly sold.
✅ Thick, Stalker-Like Atmosphere: The lo-fi, post-Soviet aesthetic is perfectly eerie.	❌ Riddled With Bugs: Memory leaks, server issues, and invisible maps are common.
✅ Fun Co-op Chaos: Brutally fun to play (and fail) with friends.	❌ Janky & Unsatisfying Combat: Melee and gunplay feel weightless.
✅ Active & Attentive Developer: Constantly pushing updates and fixing core issues.	❌ Poor Survival Balance: Food/water are too abundant, removing the “survival” aspect.
✅ Deep Base Building System: The “comfy” bunker is a great contrast to the harsh world.	❌ Major Performance Drops: Random, severe FPS drops even on high-end PCs.
✅ Creative Anomaly & Enemy Design: The Zone is full of weird, unpredictable threats.	❌ Shallow Content Pool: Lacks an endgame and map variety runs out fast.